Former Congresswoman Liz Cheney revealed she will vote for Vice President Kamala Harris at a Wednesday Duke event titled "Defending Democracy."
Peter Feaver, professor of political science and director of the Duke Program in American Grand Strategy, who moderated the event, asked Cheney if she wanted to “make news” by endorsing a presidential candidate.
Cheney had previously not weighed in on which candidate she would be supporting in the 2024 presidential election.
“Because we are here in North Carolina, I think it is crucially important for people to recognize … that Trump poses something that should prevent people from voting for him, but I don’t believe we have the luxury of writing in candidates' names — particularly in swing states,” she said. “And as a conservative, and someone who believes in and cares about the Constitution, I have thought deeply about this and because of the danger that Donald Trump poses, not only am I not voting for Donald Trump, but I will be voting for Kamala Harris.”
Her comments elicited a standing ovation from the audience.
Cheney spoke in Page Auditorium at a Sanford Distinguished Lecture, where she shared her experience as vice chairwoman of the United States House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol and gave insights into election security in advance of this November.
Moments after expressing her support for Harris, Cheney said the U.S. has “an obligation to make sure that this election is not close” to show the world “who we are.”
Cheney spoke on the importance of voting for serious candidates and “[committing] ourselves, for the good of this country, to having substantive debates and discussions, not to demonizing political opponents.”
“We have to defeat election deniers … Here in North Carolina, that means defeating the Republican candidate for governor,” she said in reference to N.C. Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson.
After the Jan 6. insurrection, Cheney became a staunch critic of Former President Donald Trump. Unlike many of her fellow Republican politicians, she publicly and consistently denounced Trump’s actions.
Cheney explained that when Trump returned to the White House from speaking to the mob of his supporters at the Capitol on Jan. 6, he watched the violence unfold on his television. She said he refused to heed pleas from his staffers and family members to call off the violence, even ignoring a note informing him that a civilian had been shot amid the chaos.
Rather than take action, he tweeted about then-Vice President Mike Pence’s apparent lack of courage, which Cheney said effectively “poured gasoline on the fire of the attack.”
“That’s a man who can never again be entrusted with power,” she said.
Cheney claimed that many members of Congress told her they would have voted to impeach Trump if it was a “secret ballot.”
When asked by Feaver why so many Republicans went back on their private commitments to break with Trump, Cheney gave a one-word explanation: “cowardice.”
Cheney also recalled a conversation with then-Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy a few days after the election, where he shared that he had met with then-president Trump who “knew he lost.”
From her position on the select committee, Cheney witnessed the “breadth and the depth” of Trump’s plan to “overturn the election.” He went from pushing state legislatures to throw out their electoral votes for Biden to pressuring the vice president and Department of Justice, ultimately mobilizing a mob, she explained.
“Each time something was tried and failed … he would move on to the next piece of it,” she said.
Cheney also spoke of McCarthy’s visit to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort after Jan. 6, which she characterized as “stunning.”
“After the violence, many of the largest corporations in the country announced they would not be donating to Republicans … So [McCarthy] needed money, and he needed access to Donald Trump's donor lists,” Cheney explained.
As an influential figure in the party, Cheney saw McCarthy’s actions as enabling other Republicans “to bring [Trump] back into the fold in exchange for access to those lists.”
She recognized the “courage” of others who stood up to Trump, including Pence, former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson, former Deputy Press Secretary Sarah Matthews and Russell Bowers, former speaker of the Arizona House.
“[If] Vice President Pence had not withstood the pressure from Donald Trump to act in a way that was illegal and unconstitutional, we would have been in a very much more serious constitutional crisis.”
Cheney pointed out that Trump’s current running mate, JD Vance, “has said specifically, repeatedly that he will not do what Mike Pence did, were he ever to face that situation.”
She believes that the Republican Party is no longer characterized by “substance” and “policy.”
“I don't know that the current Republican Party can be resuscitated,” Cheney said. “I think that there's going to have to be very, very significant work done.”
In concluding her address, Cheney called upon young people to “step up” and “get to the polls.”
“Much of the work that we're going to have to do sort of post this election cycle is getting back to a place where this country has two strong political parties that embrace the Constitution and where we can have substantive debates,” Cheney said.
Editor's note: This story was updated Wednesday night with the rest of Cheney's remarks.
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Michael Austin is a Trinity junior and managing editor of The Chronicle's 120th volume.
Zoe Kolenovsky is a Trinity junior and news editor of The Chronicle's 120th volume.
Ava Littman is a Trinity sophomore and an associate news editor for the news department.